Obama blocks Chinese wind farm ownership in Oregon

Citing national security risks, President Obama has blocked a Chinese company from acquiring wind farms in northern Oregon, according to Consumer Energy Report. The wind farms are situated near a US military base where unmanned drones are tested.

US President Barack Obama talks to the media on the Heil Family Wind Farm, in Haverhill, Iowa, in this August 2012 file photo. A small Chinese company sued President Obama for squashing its wind farm projects that were close to a military training site, saying the president overstepped his bounds and the law.

President Barack Obama has blocked a Chinese company from owning interests in four northern Oregon wind farms, citing national security risks given their close proximity to a United States military base where unmanned drones and electronic-warfare planes are tested.

Owned by Chinese nationals, Rall Corp. purchased interest in the wind farms, located only miles away from the Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility in Boardman, Oregon, earlier this year. With this turn of events, the company will have to divest its interests in the wind farms immediately.

“By failing to provide Ralls with sufficient notice and opportunity to be heard prior to prohibiting its acquisition of the wind farms and imposing extraordinary restrictions on the use and enjoyment of its property interests, CFIUS and the president have unconstitutionally deprived Ralls of its property absent due process,” the complaint reads.

The news of President Obama’s decision comes during an election campaign that has seen his opponents accuse him of being soft with China, helping the president to combat such claims, but the call is likely to further irritate already tense economic relations with China. With this risk obviously in mind, the Treasury Department statement attempted to play down the political gravity of the decision.

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